This document discusses the development of a mobile game called Blitzmerker to help children with autism spectrum disorder learn idioms. The game aims to improve social skills through engaging storylines that teach the meanings of proverbs. An evaluation with 12 children found they were highly motivated to play and better understood idioms afterwards. Logging of gameplay provided insights to further improve the game's design and content.

1. © author(s) of these slides including research results from the KOM research network and TU Darmstadt; otherwise it is specified at the respective slide
3-Jun-15
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz
KOM - Multimedia Communications Lab
Gamedays 2015
Blitzmerker: Learning Idioms
with a Mobile Game
Laila Shoukry
Laila Shoukry, M.Sc.
Polona Caserman

2. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 2
Serious Games Group

3. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 3
Autism and Social Interaction – The Problem
lutherwood.ca/
Autism Spectrum Disorder
 Most common cognitive disability
 Prevalence rate of 1 in 88 children
 Mainly affects social skills, communication
skills and interests
Deficits in Social Interaction
 Lack knowledge of how to properly
interact
 Lose motivation in social interaction
Develop social anxiety One factor: inability
to understand abstract concepts during
conversations difficulty responding to
metaphors and symbols
msnkarthik.com

4. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 4
Understanding Proverbs
In German: Die Kuh vom Eis holen.
What it means: Escape a risky situation.

5. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 5
Autism and Social Interaction – Intervention
behaviorfrontiers.com
Training Social Skills
 Improvement in response to exposure and
training
 But: decreased motivation increases social
gap Early Intervention to avoid escalation
 ABA: Applied Behavioral Therapy -
individualized coaching via therapists
Why Simulations and Games?
 Training social skills in non-real world
situations
 Encouraging environments with reduced
risk of failure and quick reward [1,2]
 Inherently interesting for Autistic children
[3]
 Less expensive for everyday use [4] tdlc.ucsd.edu

6. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 6
Software for Autism
Teachtown.com
Success
 Popular applications more accessible to a
wider audience [4]
 Practicing social and cognitive skills shown
to be effective [5]
 use of multimedia to simulate real-life
situations shows positive effects [4]
Design Requirements
 Using motivating visual and auditory
stimuli [5,6]
 Adaptive, individualized training [7,8]
 Different Configuration Options [8,9]
 Progress Statistics and Parent/Teacher
Dashboards
Teachtown.c
om
socialcluesgame.com

7. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 7
Blitzmerker
Idea
 Learning the meanings of different proverbs
 Engaging in conversations with different
characters
 Quizzes and additional info to improve
understanding
Features
 Available for German and English Idioms
 Extendable to other languages:
Conversations in xml format
 Difficulty Adaptations
 Different stories for longer engagement
 Encouraging Feedback and Hints
 Sound Effects and Interactive Elements

8. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 8
Blitzmerker – Story Structure

9. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 9
Personalization
Configuration Options
 Profiles for different users
 Choosing Language
 Background Image and Music
 Color of Text and Buttons
 Choose Character
 Use Photo as Avatar
 Reading Conversations Aloud
Parental Control Options
 Set maximum playing time per day
 Adapt Feedback and Toggle Sound
 Adding timers and bonus points

10. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 10
Logging
Logged Data
 Path in the story from start to end
 Tapped points on the screen
 Time required for each section
 Total time played
 Attempts to select the right answer
 Time needed for each answer
 Interruptions of gameplay
Benefits
 provide insights for both game design and
player progress evaluation
 Insight into game settings, tapped points,
story paths and learning progress

11. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 11
Evaluation
Field Study
 12 Children aged 8 to 16
 With parents and teachers
 Played on Android tablet devices
 Questionnaires before and after playing
 Observations by researcher and logging
statistics
Expert Evaluation
 Teachers and therapists who were also
involved in data collection and game
design
 Interviews, attending and observing field
studies and filling out questionnaires

12. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 12
Evaluation – Results
Observations
 no difficulty to interact, experience with
mobile devices
 motivated each other, compared
achievements and discussed the stories
they played
 Showed strong interest and wanted to
continue playing at home
 Some design improvements suggested
Questionnaires and Logging
 Differences in Abilities and Preferences
 high rating for the idea, audio,
comprehensibility and ease of use
 Goog rating for content, graphics, control
and fun
 75% learned new idioms
 Improvements in new iterations

13. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 13
Game available on Google Play

14. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 14
Questions & Contact

15. KOM – Multimedia Communications Lab 15
References
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adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 37(3), 589-600.
[2] Kandalaft, M. R., Didehbani, N., Krawczyk, D. C., Allen, T. T., & Chapman, S. B. (2013). Virtual reality social
cognitiontraining for young adults with high-functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,
43(1), 34-44.
[3] Boelte, S. (2009). [The ICF and its meaning for child and adolescent psychiatry]. Zeitschrift fur Kinder-und
Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 37(6), 495-497.
[4] Wainer, A. L., & Ingersoll, B. R. (2011). The use of innovative computer technology for teaching social communication to
individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5(1), 96-107.
[5] Rayner, C., Denholm, C., & Sigafoos, J. (2009). Video-based intervention for individuals with autism: Key questions that
remain unanswered. Research in Autism Spectrum Disor-ders, 3(2), 291-303.
[6] Burckley, E., Tincani, M., & Guld Fisher, A. (2014). An iPad™-based picture and video activity schedule increases
community shopping skills of a young adult with autism spec-trum disorder and intellectual disability. Developmental
neurorehabilitation, (0), 1-6.
[7] Shane, H. C., & Albert, P. D. (2008). Electronic screen media for persons with autism spectrum disorders: Results of a
survey. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 38(8), 1499-1508.
[8] Sehaba, K., Estraillier, P., and Lambert, D.. Interactive educational games for autistic chil-dren with agent-based system.
In Fumio Kishino, Yoshifumi Kitamura, Hirokazu Kato, and Noriko Nagata, editors, Entertainment Computing -
ICEC 2005, volume 3711 of Lec-ture Notes in Computer Science, pages 422–432. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2005.
ISBN 978-3-540-29034-6
[9] Paron-Wildes, A.J.. Sensory Stimulation and Autistic Children. In Implications: A News-letter by Informedesign. Vol. 06
Issue 04, 2007.